Hosea 2:17

For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth,.... Out of the mouth of Israel, as Saadiah; out of the mouth of the converted Jews, and even out of the mouth of the Gentiles, as Kimchi

For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

For I will take away the names of Baalim; it is my purpose to abolish the memory of Baalim. This great idol for all others; God will cut off all the remains of idolatry from his church. Out of her mouth; so God required, of old, . They shall no more be remembered by their name; these false gods and provoking idols shall be quite forgotten, their names perishing with them. When God shall so cut off all idolatry from his church in gospel days, it will be the final and fullest accomplishment of this prediction.

Hosea 2:17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.Ver. 17. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth] So precise she shall be, so circumspect, according to Exodus 23:13, that she should spit out of her mouth those dunghill deities with utmost contempt, as David had done before her, Psalms 16:4. If bodily filthiness may not be once named among Christians, Ephesians 5:3, why should spiritual? The primitive Christians would not call their days of the week by the heathenish names of Dies Martis, Dies Mercurii, &c. (as Mercurius Trismegist had superstitiously named them), but the first, second, third, &c., day of the week: as not willing to have the names of those idols mentioned among God’ s people. Mentioned they may be (no doubt), recitative without sin, as Baal is, Romans 11:4, and Castor and Pollux, Acts 28:11, but not honoris gratia, for honour’ sake, or without some expression of detestation of them; such as was that of Cyril, who, speaking of paganish idolatries, breaks out thus, Bορβορουμεθαταυταλεγοντες, we rake a dunghill in a discourse of dunghill gods. What a pathetic speech or rather shriek is that of Almighty God, Jeremiah 44:4, "Oh! do not this abominable thing": do not honour idols in the least. Shall I bow my knee to yonder jackanapes? said that martyr, pointing to the Rood in Paul’ s. Should I kiss Baal? as, they did 1 Kings 19:18; or so much as kiss my hand in honour to him? as Job 31:27 were not this to deny the God that is above Job 31:28. And how can those be excused that have so often in their mouths Iupiter omnipotens Mehurcule, Mecastor, et caetera magis portenta quam numina, saith Jerome? and those that think their verses nothing so neat, unless there be often naming, and sometimes invocating too, of Apollo Minerva, Venus, &c.? Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? James 3:11. Those that say they think no hurt in all this are no more excused thereby than he, that said (Ovid), “ Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba. ” Those who thus borrow garnish from the Egyptians may therewith get their botches and boils. Howsoever, they may fear to have Bellarmine himself (who was no precisian) to rise up in judgment against them and condemn them; who would not have Paul called Divus Paulus, Divine Paul, but Beatus, blessed, because Divus and Diva were the words of the heathens for their gods and goddesses.

17. I will take away the names of the Baalim] Tenacious as the popular memory is, the unholy names shall be expunged from it. ‘Remembered’ should be mentioned; comp. Joshua 23:7; Psalms 16:4, and especially the reminiscence of our passage in Zechariah 13:2 (where ‘the idols’ has taken the place of ‘the Baalim’). ‘Out of her mouth’, a change of person for the sake of variety.

For I will take array the names of Baalim out of her mouth - It is, then, of grace.

14-17. Israel will be restored to the intimate fellowship with Jehovah enjoyed in the beginning. Therefore — In view of the general situation, as described in Hosea 2:2-13. It requires divine interference.